CONDEMNATION OF GOV'T OVER KIDS IN DETENTION
The Federal Government and the Human Rights Commission remain at loggerheads over the future of children in detention. The commission has challenged the Government's assertion that the release of all children in detention would only encourage people smugglers.
Despite the Federal Government's dismissal of the report damning the detention of child asylum seekers, the Human Rights Commissioner is not backing away. But Sev Ozdowski admits his call for all of the children to be released in four weeks is unlikely to be fulfilled.SEV OZDOWSKI, HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONER: I'm not confident that they will be free in four weeks, but like in any society, public opinion is very important.
PM John Howard has backed his Immigration Minister in asserting detention deters people-smugglers.
JOHN HOWARD, PM: We don't like detaining children, we really don't. But the problem is if you reverse the policy of mandatory detention, you will be sending a beckoning signal to people smugglers, and you would have the resumption of the problem we had a few years ago.
Dr Ozdowski says there is no evidence whatsoever to support such a proposition.
SEV OZDOWSKI, HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONER: Enough is enough. We have stolen enough of these children's lives.
The Federal Government insists the International Convention on the Rights of Children allows for their lawful detention. But human rights advocates say incarceration is for a limited time and only as a last resort and they defend the report.
MARCUS EINFELD, UNICEF AMBASSADOR FOR CHILDREN: It's the most encylopedic, authoritative castigation of Australia, its Government and its people on child abuse that has ever been written.
Lawyers fighting for the release of asylum seekers say the Government is leaving itself open to huge damages claims.
ERIC VADARLIS, LAWYER: These kids have suffered considerably in a psychological way. Now that is a matter of evidence.
13-year-old Shakira and her siblings spent three months inside Woomera in 2000 and they say it did have an impact.
SHAKIRA, AFGHAN REFUGEE: They were always afraid of the fences with the spiky things.
The family from Afghanistan has been granted permanent residency.